MONKEYmedia Hits Apple with Summary Service Patent Lawsuit

MONKEYmedia filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple on Thursday alleging the Mac and iPhone maker’s Summary Service feature in Mac OS X steps on three patents it owns.

The patents in question describe a process where information can be summarized by an application, and the amount of detail included in the summary can be controlled by the user. MONKEYmedia pointed specifically to the Summary Service feature in Mac OS X, as well as the RSS features included in the Safari Web browser.

“We can sit by and watch Apple continue to use our patented inventions without paying, or we can do something about it,” said MONKEYmedia CEO Eric Bear, mimicking a statement Apple previously made regarding plans to actively protect its iPhone-related patent portfolio.

MONKEYmedia filed its patent lawsuit against Apple in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas’s Austin Division. The company is asking for an injunction blocking Apple from infringing on its patents, along with monetary damages and legal fees.